Beverages are commonly sold in containers such as cans, boxes or bottles that are manufactured from glass, paper, metal or other suitable plastics materials. It can be disconcerting for a consumer to drink directly from these containers as, while the containers are generally filled in sterile or largely uncontaminated environments, there is no way of knowing how the containers were handled after being filled and sealed, and accordingly whether or not they have been contaminated in any way.
A variety of beverages are also preferably consumed cold but are not necessarily supplied or dispensed refrigerated. If a consumer therefore wishes to consume the beverage at a lower temperature and is not able to refrigerate the container prior to consumption, it is necessary to decant the beverage from the container into a cup containing ice or another cooling substance.
The consumption of ice with a beverage adds the addition problem that the consumer generally does not know the source of the water used to make the ice, how and in what environment the ice was made or handled, whether the inside of the cup has been contaminated and, consequently, whether it is safe to consume the beverage as it is provided to the consumer.
The applicant is aware of disposable cups that have membranes secured over their openings for the purpose of improving hygiene. The cups are typically manufactured and sealed in a clean environment and are distributed and dispensed to consumers in their closed form. A problem with these cups is, however, that they cannot be stacked in a nested configuration, which does not facilitate optimal, bulk packaging, transport and storage.
The present invention aims to address, at least to some extent, these and other problems.